The National Basketball Players Association didn’t sign off on allowing teams to dock players 1/91.6th of their salaries for 2021/22 if they’re unable to play in a game due to a local vaccine mandate, NBPA executive director Michele Roberts tells Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News.
The NBA announced last week that unvaccinated players who are ineligible to play in games in New York and San Francisco wouldn’t be paid for the games they miss due to those cities’ local mandates. A follow-up report indicated that the league and the players’ union had agreed on the amount of the fine for such a violation.
However, Roberts tells Bondy that while the NBPA approved that per-game penalty (1/91.6th of a player’s salary) for certain health and safety protocol violations, the union doesn’t believe it should apply to players who miss games solely for being unvaccinated.
“They’ve been reporting that we’ve agreed that if a player who was not able to play because of his non-vaccination status, they could be docked (pay),” Roberts said. “We did not agree. The league’s position is that they can. We’ll see. If we get to that point, we’ll see.”
As Roberts explains, the NBPA’s position is that a player shouldn’t be punished for being unvaccinated, since the NBA has no vaccine mandate of its own for its players. The league’s stance, per Roberts, is that the Collective Bargaining Agreement allows teams to assess those penalties without NBPA approval.
“It’s debatable. We’ll see,” Roberts said. “I’m not going to say it’s impossible, but I’m going to say it’s a bridge we’ll cross, if and when we get there. Right now, we’ve agreed that a player breaks protocols, that he can be disciplined to include some taxing of his comp. But not being vaccinated — because it’s not mandatory — in and of itself should not lead to any discipline.”
As far as we know, the only NBA player who is in real danger of being docked salary for missing games due to his vaccination status is Nets guard Kyrie Irving. The local mandates in New York and San Francisco don’t apply to visiting players, and no other Nets, Knicks, or Warriors players have been reported as unvaccinated. An unvaccinated player in another market – such as Wizards guard Bradley Beal – should still be able to play in all 82 games.
[RELATED: Nets Unsure About Plan For Kyrie Irving]
While Irving, Beal, and a handful of other unvaccinated players have been the subject of an outsized number of headlines since training camps began, Roberts reiterated that the vast majority of NBA players are fully vaccinated. She told Kavitha Davidson of The Athletic (Twitter link) that there’s now a 96% vaccination rate among NBA players, noting that vaccinated players have played a role in helping convince some of the holdouts.
“We’re doing better than companies who are mandatory vaccinations because we’re at 95-96%,” Roberts said to Bondy. “100% is still an aspiration.”
Most likely the PA will not have a case if Kyrie went to court over the matter.
The CBA likely has some form of language that states a player who fails to make themselves available for games will be fined. Courts have already ruled that the mandates are legal and exemptions are pretty much impossible. The union will fight for their player on this matter as they should, but I don’t see how they have a leg to stand on legally.
Lol
WTF are you talking about. Hey Players Association if a player doesn’t get the shot and misses games screw him. If I don’t get the shot I get FIRED..get over it you spoiled babies.
Who’s fault is that ?? why don’t you just become an NBA player ??
The player’s association is just doing their job, calm down.
Yea, but no one should be losing their jobs over this vaccine. I say that as someone who has gotten it and I am scheduled for my booster. However someone else’s vaccination status does not make me feel better or worse and someone’s choice to get it or not does not make me more or less concerned about my mom or family. I remain a fan of freedom. I freely chose to get it, I prefer others to freely decide what to do. No one should be losing jobs over this crap! I am more concerned about freedom restrictions than I am who is vaxed or not.
I think I want the freedom to stop dealing with a stoppable pandemic. I think the unvaccinated have the freedom to go live in a poor country where few people can get vaccinated and the freedom to die of COVID there.
Sick of hearing all the lame arguments from babies who are afraid of a jab in the arm. Ostracization is not enough punishment for such anti social behavior.
It certainly does not bode well if and when we deal with a more severe pandemic and the same misinformation abounds on the interwebs. We won’t get a mulligan for that one.
Nobody is losing their job. They are losing 15m+ out of 35m because they made a choice
A union is there to protect and advocate for its members. That is exactly what the NBAPA is doing. If you are not part of a union then it is you vs. The Boss, wherein you lose.
Seems very unfair that Kyrie gets fined millions & other players like Beal walk without consequences because a couple of backwater cities have draconian & bullish rules… Mandatory vaccination is never the right answer, not for this virus or for any other disease out there, people has the right to make their own choices in life, right or wrong all of us have free will for a reason!
Can’t wait to see the NBPA take the league to courts & mope the floor with them, so the players get paid what they rightfully are owed!
polio likes this comment
Kylie’s a baby and I’ve got no sympathy for him. Guy was MIA from his team multiple times last year and was still collecting paychecks. You get paid to work, if you can’t work based on your decisions or believes then why on Earth should you still be paid?….. Because it’s flat?
Are you, El Don, calling NY & San Francisco “backwater cities”? Sorry, lol, I can’t get past that. Lol.
‘Mandatory vaccination is never the right answer’
Except measles, mumps, rubella, polio, dTap, HepA, HepB, Pneumococcal, etc which are mandatory for public schools in many if not all states and have curbed if not stopped the spread of those diseases. Not to mention the myriad mandatory vaccinations required for international travel.
How does someone go through life being exposed to information, completely ignore all of it, then act authoritarian while spreading lies and false information?
And calling San Francisco and New York ‘backwater cities’ is troll-level buffoonery. Either get a clue or up your troll game.
“Backwater cities”. Your bias—and jealousy—are showing.
Our free will goes as far as a barrel of Middle Eastern oil takes it. Free will is the biggest philosophical BS used to justify the most selfish behaviors.
If by some miracle the PA gets its way on this, is Wiggins going to get unvaxinated..? Asking for…well, Wiggins.
NBA is right on this. PA is wrong. The league already requires that players follow local laws. If a player gets arrested for something and misses a game they don’t get paid. Local laws requiring vaccination are no different.
Roberts: NBA players should not have to pay speeding tickets incurred on the way to a game
Headline is pretty misleading, and I can understand the stance of the PA.
The players should all just shut up, get vaccinated and dribble. Oh and BTW, get paid seven and eight figure salaries for playing basketball.
I’m mystified by the Unions. Like the NBA, there are teacher unions, Pilots unions, Healthcare Workers. What are they fighting or. The 2 to 3 percent who won’t get vaccinated. Shouldn’t they be more concerned with the health and well being of the 97%. No, they end up fighting for flat earth man. Do you want to be on 18 hour flight and your co-pilot is unvaccinated. Or guarding Beal when he might sneeze or cough into your face. Unions are on the wrong side of this. I’d like to see media coverage of what the 97% think.